250 THE WILDERNESS AND JUNGLE 



how the game should be played, and it is a 

 game with very strict rules, any breach of which 

 may cost the player his life. Often, on the 

 other hand, an experienced big game hunter 

 suffers like the veriest beginner. And so it 

 was with Mr. Le Breton. He hit a tiger 

 twice before the brute charged, and when he 

 turned to take his other gun from the native 

 shikari, the man had bolted out of reach. 

 Without a moment's hesitation, Mr. Le Breton 

 made for the nearest tree, and was just hauling 

 himself out of reach when the tiger clawed his 

 leg. It made another attempt to reach him, 

 and now it managed to scratch his foot. By 

 this time he was too high up for it, and it gave 

 up. Unfortunately, blood-poisoning set in, 

 and he died soon after. The wounds in- 

 flicted by such unclean feeders as lions and 

 tigers, which eat putrid carrion, are very 

 poisonous, and unless antiseptic treatment is 

 administered at once, they often prove fatal. 

 It is the lodging of putrid food in the grooved 

 claws that so often renders even a slight 

 scratch ultimately fatal. Major Sandbach, R.A., 

 died from the same cause after a terrible ex- 

 perience with a lioness in Somaliland. The 

 brute had previously bitten a native, who died 

 the same night. In this encounter also, the 

 Major's shikari had fled with the second gun, 

 and the lioness was on him at once. He thrust 



